A local branch of the Russian Ministry of Health has announced the admission of a Siberian sorcerer to a mental hospital for tests, after he started a walking trip through Russia that he claimed was aimed at getting rid of the “devil” of Russian President Vladimir Putin through magic.
The Russian juggler, named Alexander Gabitshev, was arrested on Thursday night in the Russian republic of Buryatia in eastern Siberia, while camping with his followers on a boulevard near Lake Baikal, after starting a hiking trip since March and arriving in Moscow in 2021.
Gabichev had planned to hold a "ritual to deport Putin" upon his arrival in Moscow. He told an opposition channel in July: "God said he is a devil. Nature hates him wherever natural disasters and terrorist acts occur," he told hundreds of his followers in the city of Chita. "After his departure, we will enjoy a quiet and prosperous life for a thousand years," he said.
Gabichev was taken to his hometown in the Republic of Yakutia after his arrest, and police said he was being prosecuted for a crime, while the local branch of the Ministry of Health said in a statement that the sorcerer had been admitted to a mental hospital for examination and that the ministry was prepared to provide him with good medical care if he was found to be ill.
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In a video published by the local media and said to have been filmed after his arrest, Gabichev says he is in his hometown of Yakutsk and is treated well, that his lawyer is in charge of his file, and that everything is within the law.
The Kremlin's main opponent, Alexei Navalny, condemned the old methods worthy of the Soviet KGB when the regime claimed that the opponents were mentally ill to remove them. "A person can be taken to a mental hospital without a judicial decision or even an investigation," he said on Twitter.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that he did not know the details of the arrest.
In recent weeks, a small group of supporters joined Gabichev on his trip between Yakutsk and Moscow.